Troublesome Trucks
The Troublesome Trucks (called Cars, originally Foolish Freight Cars, in the US narration) are nicknamed so because they can be very troublesome, and love to play tricks on the engines. This article is about standard gauge troublesome trucks. Open wagons Open wagons are the most common''' Troublesome Trucks'. They can be seen working in most places on the North Western Railway. They carry a variety of loads, including crates, stone, slate and coal. Basis Plank trucks are based on 5 and 7-plank open wagons. The smaller trucks are based on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway open wagon, scaled up accordingly. The slate trucks are based on the 2-bar wooden slate wagons of the Talyllyn Railway, scaled up accordingly. Livery In The Railway Series and the early Television Series, the plank trucks were painted in a number of different liveries. Currently in the Television Series, they're predominantly painted grey. More recently, in Big World! Big Adventures!, some of the plank trucks in foreign countries are painted red. Type of Open Wagons File:TroublesomeTrucksMainCGI.PNG|7-Plank Trucks TroublesomeTruckModel2.png|Welshpool & Llanfair Plank Trucks File:StandardGaugeSlateTruck.png|Slate Trucks FredPelhay.png|8-Plank Trucks TroublesomeTruckRWS2.png|5-Plank Trucks 5PlankTruckShortRWS.png|Anopha Quarry Trucks BallastTrucks.jpeg|Ballast Trucks Vans The '''Vans '''carry goods and freight on the North Western Railway. There are several types of anthropomorphic vans featured throughout the Railway Series and television series. Livery In the early Television Series, the vans were painted primarily in grey or brown. Currently, they are predominantly painted grey. More recently, in Big World! Big Adventures!, some of the vans in foreign countries are painted green. Type of Vans MainTroublesomeVanCGI.png|Single Ventilated Vans File:SaltVanModelSeries.png|Salt Vans VanModel.png|Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Vans File:LBSCRwy8TonVanModelSeries.png|LBSC Railway 8-ton Vans LNWRNonVentilatedVans.png|LNWR Non-Ventilated Vans GWRVentilatedVans.png|GWR Ventilated Vans File:UtilityVanFace.png|Utility Vans CattleTruckModel.png|Cattle Trucks BananaVan.png|Banana Vans Tankers The '''Tankers' are used to carry a variety of liquids. Most of the tankers in The Railway Series and Television Series do not have faces. The only types to be seen with faces are the standard tankers, tar tankers, milk tankers, a fuel tanker and oil tankers. Livery The Oil Tankers and Tar Tankers are painted black, with their respective symbols on their sides. The Standard Tankers are painted black with blank sides, and the Fuel Tanker from The Railway Series is painted yellow. Type of Vans MainTroublesomeTankerModel.png|Standard Tankers File:TarTankersFace.png|Tar Tankers File:MilkTankersFace.png|Milk Tankers File:MainTroublesomeTankerCGI.png|Oil Tankers File:MainTroublesomeTankerRWS.png|Fuel Tankers Brake Vans Brake Vans are railway carriages from which the train's brakes can be controlled by the guard. To date, only one troublesome brake van was briefly appeared with a face in the second season episode, A Close Shave. Basis The brake van that appeared in A Close Shave is based on a BR Standard 20 Ton van. Livery Brake vans are commonly painted grey. Personalities Every wise engine knows trucks cannot be trusted. Trucks could be considered the rebels and the troublemakers of all rolling stock on the railway, as most of them love to cause mischief and trouble and show no remorse for whatever they do unless told off by their engine. If an engine is having a bad day, makes a mistake, or is easily played upon, the trucks begin their wild antics of singing, name calling, holding back, shoving, bumping, giggling and so on. They will play tricks on an engine based on how they treat them. They are known to be the cause of many accidents, and some of them are a form of revenge due to mistreatment and they are not known for their common sense; they will carry out their plans to pay back an engine even if they result in derailing, damaging or destroying themselves. Trucks can also be described as territorial; when they get used to certain engines pulling them, another engine in the yard to take them may cause confusion or anger for the trucks. In Percy's Predicament for example, Toby and Percy switched jobs, making Toby's trucks furious and causing Percy to crash. In Oliver Owns Up, the trucks refused for Oliver to take them and demanded Duck, Donald or Douglas instead. To the trucks, one engine is as good as another, as on one occasion they took their anger out on Thomas when they could not get back at James for bumping them. Trucks are also shown to be somewhat manipulative and can take advantage of other engines that does not know much about them. This was shown when they tricked Bill and Ben by telling them where to put them when they said they wanted to help, only to end up causing delays when the trucks ended up all over the sidings in messy situations, making the twins late to fetch Gordon's coaches. The only engines the trucks are known not to play tricks on are Edward, Stepney, Salty and Hiro. These engines have their ways of nessesary sterness and knowledge of how to properly discipline them when they misbehave, and only bump them when they deserve it. Salty's way of handling trucks is singing musical tunes for them to sing along, so as to keep their minds off of misbehaving. They are also afraid of Donald and Douglas after Douglas crushed the Spiteful Brake Van to pieces and Oliver since he pulled a private owner truck called S.C. Ruffey apart. Although they were all accidents, the trucks were never told that, and since these incidents, they always keep in mind never to play tricks on those engines. There have, however, been some cases where the trucks and engines are on the same side, such as when Diesel was given a third chance on Sodor, but the trucks tricked him into misbehaving and getting sent away again. They also asked Percy to help move them from an ill-mannered and obnoxious barge named Bulstrode, only to end up in his hull and damage him, resulting in him being sent to a beach. During the thirteenth and sixteenth seasons, they behaved unusually well but were easily annoyed. From King of the Railway onwards, they have regained their old personalities, misbehaving and causing accidents. Trivia *Trucks are never named; however, those that are privately owned tend to take on the name of their owner, like S.C. Ruffey, Fred Pelhay and Old Bennett. *From the sixth season onwards in the US, the term "truck" is used more often. In more recent seasons, however, the US has been more consistent in using the term "car", unless referring to the Troublesome Trucks *The audio clip of the trucks laughing heard from the second through seventh seasons is actually Junior Campbell's laughing sound in a higher-pitch, as is the clip of the trucks singing their song, "Pop Goes the Diesel". *In the first season, the Troublesome Trucks had paper eyes and a paper mouth similar to how Annie and Clarabel's were made. This however, disabled the trucks from having multiple emotions until the second season. *The Troublesome Trucks went through several aesthetic changes in the television series: **Season 2: ***The Trucks gained face masks to allow a greater variety of facial expressions, some Season 1 trucks do still appear in the second season however. **Season 12: ***The Trucks have the same face design. **Season 13: ***The open topped wagons became taller. **Season 17: ***All trucks are now grey. ***The trucks now have identical faces with no distinguishing features, just as they did in the twelfth season. **Season 20: ***The Goods Vans regain their faces. **Journey Beyond Sodor: ***The tankers and salt vans regain their faces *Some face masks of S.C. Ruffey, Toad, Bulstrode and The Spiteful Brake Van have been seen on the trucks. *In one episode, a brake van is seen with a troublesome trucks face. *From the first season to the fifth season, the wagons and Troublesome Trucks used in the television series were made out of vaccuformed plastic Tenmille gauge 1 kits. *The Capsule Plarail toys are repainted from JNR Tora55000-type's toys. Appearances Railway Series= |-|Television Series= Voice Actors Merchandise See also * Plank Trucks * Quarry Trucks * Slate Trucks * Vans * Animal Wagons * Tankers * Brake Vans * Other Narrow Gauge Rolling Stock de:Die Widerspenstigen Waggons es:Furgones Problemáticos he:קרונות טורדניים ja:いじわる貨車・いたずら貨車 pl:Nieznośne Wagony Category:Rolling stock Category:North Western Railway Category:Trucks Category:Other railways Category:The Mainland Category:Thomas & Friends characters Category:The Railway Series characters Category:Awdry-created characters Category:Male characters Category:Female characters Category:Standard gauge